A comparative pilot study on Gram-negative bacteria contaminating the hands of children living in urban and rural areas of Indonesia versus Germany - A suitable monitoring strategy for diarrhea risk assessment?

ABSTRACT: Diarrhea is the second leading cause of death mainly effecting young children. Often it is the result of fecal-oral pathogen transmission. We aimed to investigate whether monitoring the prevalence of Gram-negative bacteria on the hands of asymptomatic children is suitable as an indicator of fecal contamination of the environment in their playground. We compared the prevalence of Gram-negative bacteria on the hands of children, who live in the German city of Göttingen, an urban area in a high-income country, with the situation in Medan as an urban area and Siberut as a rural area both in the middle-income country Indonesia. A total of 511 children at the age of 3 months to 14 years were asked to put their thumb print on MacConkey agar, which was used to screen for the presence of Gram-negat

SUBMITTER: Simanjuntak DF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10106674 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature